The Normandie Hotel is a hotel located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The hotel
originally opened on October 10, 1942. Its design was inspired by
the ocean liner SS
Normandie. It features the same art deco design as the
ship that inspired it, and the hotel's roof sign is one of the two
signs that adorned the top deck of the Normandie but were removed
from it during an early refitting. It is a fine example of what
came to be known as the Streamline Moderne architecture
style.

The Normandie Hotel was the brainchild of Puerto Rican engineer
Félix
Benítez. The engineer met his future wife while on a trip abord
the SS Normandie. As a tribute to his French wife, Moineau, Benítez
decided to construct a structure that imitated the lavish settings
of the ocean liner. Designed by architect Raúl Reichard
(1908-1996), the hotel began construction in 1938. The hotel's exterior was designed to
resemble a luxury liner, elongated and curved in front, with
portal-shape windows and lights. Inside, the hotel features art
deco design, complete with Roman, Egyptian, and French details, high ceilings, and corridors
looking down into a central skylighted atrium. Designers and artists
from the Dominican Republic, France, Spain, and Puerto Rico all contributed to the
hotel's overall construction and when it opened on October 10, 1942
it became an instant sensation among the island's social elite.
Completed at a cost of more than US$2,000,000, the hotel catered to
many major Hollywood and Latin American film
stars such as Cantinflas, Libertad Lamarque and Jorge Negrete. The
hotel also served as a performing arts venue for many of Puerto
Rico's top entertainers such as Ruth Fernández, Myrta Silva, Sylvia Rexach, and Carmen
Delia Dipini. After being closed and abandoned in the 1960s,
the hotel was restored in the early 1990s after it underwent
massive renovations due to heavy damaged caused by Hurricane
Georges in 1998.

In early 2005, the 173-room hotel reopened after an extensive
refurbishing. Operating as an exclusive boutique hotel, the
Normandie is a popular destination for locals and tourists.